Pacer Advisors Inc. Sells 10,889,393 Shares of Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL)

Key Points

• Pacer Advisors Inc. reduced its holdings in Halliburton Company by 58.8%, selling over 10.8 million shares during the first quarter, leaving them with approximately 0.89% ownership valued at $193.9 million.
• Multiple analysts have decreased their price targets for Halliburton, with Royal Bank Of Canada lowering it from $28.00 to $24.00, while Barclays cut theirs from $26.00 to $22.00.
• Halliburton recently declared a quarterly dividend of $0.17 per share, representing a 3.03% dividend yield with a payout ratio of 28.45%.

Pacer Advisors Inc. trimmed its holdings in shares of Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL - Free Report) by 58.8% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 7,641,544 shares of the oilfield services company's stock after selling 10,889,393 shares during the quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. owned approximately 0.89% of Halliburton worth $193,866,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Halliburton in the fourth quarter worth approximately $299,986,000. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 15.6% in the fourth quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 16,093,680 shares of the oilfield services company's stock worth $437,587,000 after buying an additional 2,171,722 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 121.8% in the first quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,306,224 shares of the oilfield services company's stock worth $83,879,000 after buying an additional 1,815,357 shares in the last quarter. Twinbeech Capital LP lifted its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 314.1% in the fourth quarter. Twinbeech Capital LP now owns 2,044,661 shares of the oilfield services company's stock worth $55,594,000 after buying an additional 1,550,920 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Freestone Grove Partners LP purchased a new position in shares of Halliburton in the fourth quarter worth $41,484,000. 85.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their target price on shares of Halliburton from $28.00 to $24.00 and set a "sector perform" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Citigroup decreased their price target on shares of Halliburton from $33.00 to $31.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on shares of Halliburton from $31.00 to $29.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of Halliburton from $28.00 to $26.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Barclays decreased their price target on shares of Halliburton from $26.00 to $22.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Halliburton has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $31.61.

Halliburton Stock Up 2.2%

Shares of Halliburton stock opened at $22.45 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 2.00 and a quick ratio of 1.46. Halliburton Company has a 1 year low of $18.72 and a 1 year high of $34.97. The firm's 50-day moving average is $21.20 and its two-hundred day moving average is $23.27. The stock has a market cap of $19.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.49, a PEG ratio of 3.67 and a beta of 1.13.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 22nd. The oilfield services company reported $0.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.55. Halliburton had a net margin of 8.37% and a return on equity of 21.45%. The company had revenue of $5.51 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $5.43 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.80 EPS. The firm's quarterly revenue was down 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Halliburton Company will post 2.64 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 25th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, June 4th were given a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.03%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, June 4th. Halliburton's payout ratio is 28.45%.

Halliburton Company Profile

Halliburton Company provides products and services to the energy industry worldwide. It operates through two segments, Completion and Production, and Drilling and Evaluation. The Completion and Production segment offers production enhancement services that include stimulation and sand control services; cementing services, such as well bonding and casing, and casing equipment; and completion tools that offer downhole solutions and services, including well completion products and services, intelligent well completions, and service tools, as well as liner hanger, sand control, and multilateral systems.

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